Who was the first female track athlete from India to compete at the Summer Olympics?

Nilima Ghose, at the age of 17, became the first female track athlete from India to compete at the Summer Olympics. She participated in the 100m sprint and the 80m hurdles at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.

In the 1952 Summer Olympics, India saw its first participation by women athletes. Out of a total of 64 athletes, only four were women: Nilima Ghose, D’Souza Sequeira, and the swimmers Dolly Nazir and Arati Saha, accompanying 60 men.

Nilima Ghose officially made history as the first Indian woman to compete in the Summer Olympics when she ran in the women's 100m. She competed in the first heat of the event on July 21, 1992, finishing second last in a time of 13.80 seconds. Her compatriot, D'Souza, participated in heat nine, but none of them qualified for the next round.

Ghose then participated in the 80-meter hurdles heat and finished fifth. She didn't win any medals, nor did any of the other three female athletes. But nonetheless, they paved the way for other women to participate in the Olympics.

Nilima Ghose boasted a personal best time of 12.57s, which she clocked two years after the Olympic Games in 1954. She also has a lifetime best of 13.07s in the 80m hurdles.

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Indian female athletes to have won medals at the Summer Olympics

Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian female athlete to win an Olympic medal. She won a bronze medal in women's weightlifting at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

At the London Olympics 2012, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom won bronze medals in Badminton and Boxing, respectively. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Indian women were the sole medal winners for the nation, as PV Sindhu won a silver medal in badminton, and Sakshi Malik won a bronze in wrestling.

At the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Sindhu won her second individual medal, a bronze, making her the first Indian woman and only the second Indian athlete, after Sushil Kumar, to win two individual Olympic medals. Another two medalists at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were Mirabai Chanu, who won a silver medal in weightlifting, and Lovlina Borgohain, who won a bronze in boxing in her Olympic debut.